The entire city of Bridgeport was without power as of 4:30 a.m. and the situation hadn't changed as of 45 minutes ago (per the Update.) You boys got your lights on yet? And what in the heck could possibly cause that?

At least one local news outlet (KXAS) has a "countdown clock" for the federal government shutdown. Silly. Just silly.

It can't possibly be true that the crazy Arizona Sheriff was in Austin yesterday to advise the legislature about a "tent city" jail. (Since I've followed his self-serving and redneck twitter posts, he's really risen very high on my Drives Me Crazy List.)

The Ticket made a reference to Wise County and Meth yesterday. If I had to guess and the breakdown of drugs cases in the county, I'd go 50% meth, 45% marijuana, and 5% other. (It's incredibly rare to see cocaine, ecstasy, heroine, or the like.)

And I bet 90% of the drug cases originate out of traffic stops completely unrelated to a drug investigation.

The amount of time that is spent cleaning inside a household is staggering: Whether it be dishes, counters, rugs, clothes, or the human body, that's a lot of time.

I heard about some officer in Mesquite pepper spraying a baby squirrel (yep, you read that right), but somehow I completely missed the video! (Any bets the officer's report reads "The squirrel was not complying with my commands, made threatening gestures to such an extent that I feared for my safety and the safety of others, so I used reasonable force to obtain compliance.")

Mrs. LL woke up early and completely screwed up my morning routine.

Hot sideline reporter apparently doesn't like fried food (and the cook looks like a young "have you seen my stapler" guy from Office Space.)

The Texas House bans texting while driving but you would still be allowed to read texts and fiddle with a GPS device. Sounds like an enforceable law.

And one lawmaker actually threw out the "if it saves one life" card. Hate that argument. I could advocate a law that requires crash helmets and flame resistant body suits while driving because it would certainly "save one life."

If you have one or more of those double-jeopardy-double-punishment* surcharges assessed by DPS before December 31, 2008, your last chance to get rid of them for pennies on the dollar is midnight. That includes surcharges for no insurance, no driver's license, DWI, etc.

The site. Go.Go.Go.
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*That no court has the guts to so rule

My favorite screenshot from Fox 4 News last night as these folks argue with an African-American county commissioner about whether the Confederate Flag should be flown. (The guy whose face is partially blocked was talking loudly and pointing his finger.)

They look like an open-minded and compassionate bunch. I wonder who they voted for in the presidential election?

Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post ate at Joe T.'s last night in Fort Worth. No website fires off more blog posts on a daily basis than hers.

Lake Bridgeport, which has seen a couple years of being full, is in a dicey situation as it sits at five feet low before a potentially long and dry summer.

New kid in the neighborhood is an overtalker. Sweet kid, but she can extend an "Ok, we'll see you later" moment into an eternity.

That video of the 2 by 4 going through the car window (posted here two days ago) led Fox 4 news last night. Of course, they had to package it in a "dangers of debris on the road" news segment -- you can't just show a crazy video.

"Maryland Man Superglued To Walmart Toilet As A Prank." The boys on the Ticket this morning wondered why he didn't carefully inspect the seat before sitting down since it was a public restroom. Fox 4's Lauren Przybyl told us that her mother taught her to "hover." It's been a very informative morning.

I haven't heard what happened to the goofy "worst day of my life getting married tomorrow" guy. But you'd certainly think someone would track him down and interview him.

What budget crisis?: Texas adds 44 more DPS troopers to the roads today.

What's the world record for hitting the snooze button on an alarm. Someone in my house might have broken it this morning.

The legal blogosphere has gone ballistic over a young lawyer who advertised himself as a specialist, had a misleading website, had his first trial (murder) stopped by the judge because he was incompetent (wow), and then proclaimed "Mistrial!" on his Facebook page as if he had done a good thing.

Hey, I was all over the Bush Administration for pumping up the terror fear factor from time to time in order to justify its "Do What We Want Policy In The Name Of Keeping You Safe". And when The Obama Administration does it, I'll point it out, too.

Isn't that headline a coincidence? We bomb Libya two weeks ago and there's a little bit more of a backlash than the President expected. So what to do? Just float a couple of alerts out there about Libya being active evil terrorists. Problem solved.

A ticket broker has a bunch of tickets stolen and now the Rangers have deactivated the bar codes on them.

I think a lot of innocent people are about to be screwed. I understand that if I buy a watch out of the trunk of a car that I should suspect it is stolen. But these tickets are likely to end up on Stubhub, eBay, and Craigslist where legitimate sales of tickets are resold every day. I wouldn't think for a second they are stolen.

So, in the end, isn't the thief going to get his money while innocent purchasers become more victims? And if the Rangers don't re-issue the tickets to the ticket broker (they wouldn't, would they?), they'll end up with empty seats instead of concession buying fans.

The Messenger's above the fold story today concerns the death of the Decatur freshman and its lead editorial is about bullying although they also say there is "no evidence" of suicide. It's unusual for them to cover the elephant-in-the-room, but I'm not critical of it.

Congrats to the Lady Aggies for winning the women's basketball championship last night. That game was a heck of a lot more entertaining than the men's game on Monday night.

But I'll admit to confusion as the Aggies coach danced "The Dougie" after the game. (Video) Yep, I had to look it up. And finding Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Kate Upton doing it at a basketball game a couple of days ago was worth the effort.

Dish Network bought Blockbuster in the middle of the night at auction for $230 million? Why?

Having a full calender at work is a beating until you consider the alternative.

A skinny LeAnn Rimes sang the National Anthem the other night in Houston. Hey, now.

Weeping Willow tree update: If it were a person, I would have called an ambulance yesterday.

I haven't heard much about Bridgeport ISD teacher cuts. (Plano ISD made news by laying off 223 and an additional 123 support staff yesterday.)

The new Republican House promised to slash the federal budget (which I'm all for.) Now it's time to put up or shut up as a federal government shutdown looms on Friday.

"You need to go back to the house even though the game is starting because the 2nd Grader In The House forgot her batting helmet." Patience. Be patient.

There wasn't much to the Bridgeport Index web site but now it seems to be gone.

4.05.2011

In 2009, Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol joined a teen pregnancy prevention nonprofit called the Candie’s Foundation. Today, the Associated Press reported that the Candie’s Foundation released its 2009 tax information, revealing that Bristol was paid a salary of $262,500.

But the Foundation distributed only $35,000 in grants to actual teen pregnancy health and counseling clinics

NASCAR comes back to Texas this week , and I noticed that the big race is Saturday night instead of Sunday afternoon. I'm no major marketer, but wouldn't you want that massive crowd to stick around an extra day?

Wise County Attorney James Stainton won the Liberally Lean Pick Em Tourney (final standings.). I hypothetically got a text from him last night that read "Winning". I'll never hear the end of this.

Playing that tournament hasn't been as much fun ever since I (finally) figured out that the first and second round picks matter only a tiny fraction of what the final picks do. Example: The top three finishers in our tournament had one thing in common: They all picked UConn to win.

Somebody help me out: Is Butler shooting 18% good basketball?

And a collective groan across the nation went up when Jim Nantz closed the game out last night by saying that UConn was the "Top Dog" and was also "The Best In Show." (Get it? Two teams with dog mascots? See what he did there? Ugh.)

Family Cat made a break for it last night into the backyard. The Family Dog then chased her back and forth for 15 minutes until, unfortunately, Mrs. LL corralled the feline.

Mrs. LL has unleashed some unknown chemicals on our shower and has disassembled various handles, panels and seals for cleaning. I'm not sure the Japanese are attacking the nuclear reactors that hard.

The Obama Administration now announces that John Belushi look alike and 9/11 Mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be tried by a military tribunal instead of in a federal district court in New York as previously announced. They need to get their act together on this.

And I'm the only one that cares, but we've shamefully held all those "suspected terrorists" for nearly a decade without a trial. If they "hated us for our freedom", they've got to be very confused by now.

Someone sent this pic to me as a suggested Random Thought Girl(s). I wonder if that is Lake Bridgeport in the background?

This guy made a big deal about wanting to burn a Quran last year but then backed off due to public pressure. For some reason, he quietly did it any way earlier this year with no fanfare and no press coverage. This video was uploaded about a week ago.

All went according to plan until people started dying because of it in Afghanistan.

Did you know Windex takes out fingernail polish out of the carpet? Did you know we found that out during a state of carpet emergency yesterday?

Weird: Charlie Sheen is royally booed in Detroit on Friday but gets a standing ovation in Chicago last night.

On Friday, a Southwest Airlines plane developed a hole in the passenger compartment at 36,000 feet. I always thought the chances of someone being sucked out of the plane in a situation like that was almost a given.

Some news organizations are recalling an incredible story (and photo) from 1988 when an Aloha Airliner lost part of its fuselage -- and a flight attendant -- midair.

Highway 114 is getting a bridge at FM51 per the Update. I like the concept since it will provide entrance and exit ramps, but aren't there other places in the county where such a design could be used?

The Lady Aggies are going to the National Championship game. They are a scrappy bunch. (And they'll avoid two time defending champ Connecticut who lost last night.)

From the "How did I miss this?" Department: Former Mav Steve Nash made waves last December when he filed for divorce one day after his wife gave birth because, uh, the baby didn't exactly look like him.

Wow: A random lawyer I keep up with who blogs in Harris County wrote in 2008 about an old and mentally disturb friend of his who showed up looking for him at the courthouse. The blog post was basically a "how can I help him?" story. Flash forward three years and miles away: That same man walked into his parents' house and shot his father dead on Sunday in San Antonio. (Links.)

Uh, if we are so worried about "spreading democracy and freedom" we might want to pay attention to 1,000 civilians being killed in the Ivory Coast over a three day period.

What's left of the Liberally Lean Tourney Pick 'Em is here. The Wise County Attorney will win it all if UConn wins tonight -- and he'll never let me forget it. If Butler wins, someone named "SweetGRubes" wins (that's a Ticket reference, by the way.)

Before you jump me about my prediction that the Rangers won't make the playoffs (they went 3-0 over the weekend), there are 159 more games left. (And did you see that Former-Rangers-Rent-A-Pitcher Cliff Lee pitched seven innings, struck out eleven, and walked none. That's how you win.)

Outside of Rangers' Manager Ron Washington's modest house in New Orleans is the word "NIGGERS" which has been etched into concrete on the sidewalk. He said it was there when he bought the house in 1986 and has never spent the couple of hundred of bucks to replace it. (Story).

4.03.2011

Despite having a krillion movie channels and a Netflix account, we rented Black Swanvia pay-per-view last night. (Why doesn't that technology kill all the rest?) I used to watch a couple of new movies per week, but those days are gone.

Verdict: Huge thumbs up. I've always believed you don't know how much you like a movie until about a week after watching it. I don't need a week on this one.

I expected it to be pretty high tone, but it can almost be described as a smart and modern day Carrie.

Women will eat this film up.

There's no question you'll spend a lot of time asking "What the heck is going on?" but, oddly, not in a frustrating kind of way. But you'll have no idea what is real and what is not.

I love. love, love Natalie Portman (from Beautiful Girls to The Professional to the fantastic Closer.) Have for years. And she's not even 30 yet.

As for her character, I wanted to yell at the scream, "Don't you have just one friend who you can call and say 'Man, there are some freaky things going on!""

My biggest criticism of the movie is that it continuously invokes the #1 horror cliche (look in the mirror and see something shocking in the background, take a step backward and turn around to be confronted with someone suddenly standing there, etc.) I hate that. You end up watching a movie in a tense manner - not because it's brilliantly written - but because you know the director is screwing with you.

With all the rehearsal and dressing room scenes, a sexually harassing director, and a naive star, I was laughing at myself for thinking of Elizabeth Berkley's Showgirls so often.

And then I read a review that said, "Showgirls meets Fight Club on crazy pills." Spot on.